The Second Time Around
by RenaJ159
Summary: Edward is just starting to get over Bella's death, when he meets Amber. She's a beautiful brunette with deep blue eyes. She's interesting, a bit mysterious, and holds secrets to his past and future. So what happens next? EdxBxOC. REVISED.
1. Remembrance

**Summary: **Edward is just starting to get over Bella's death, when he meets Amber. She's a beautiful brunette with deep blue eyes. She's interesting, a bit mysterious, and holds secrets to his past and future. Who is she? How does she know about a brother Edward never remembers having? What happens next? EdxBxOC. **REVISED**.

**Disclaimer: **I only own Amber, everything else belongs to SM :)

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Chapter 1: Remembrance

Damn, I look like a mess.

My hair's all over the place – more so than usual, my eyes are an ugly black color unfolding the blank soul that lie inside my living corps, my face looks somehow emaciated, and yet I just limply stand here and stupidly examine myself in this mirror.

Alice comes to stand behind me looking solemn, "It's time to get ready, Edward." She says carefully, just above a whisper, meeting my eyes for only a second as if she could break me.

I move sluggishly away in the direction of my armoire with a grunt of acknowledgement. Today, we visit Bella's grave, an annual reminder of probably one of the worst days of my existence; third only to the day I lost my love and the one of her "funeral".

It's in this moment that I wish once again, that I could rewind to the time of the earlier days of marriage and freeze it for eternity – for I know if I said erase the events that took her from me that something else would arise to snatch her again. It's the price of coveting someone who's time was up, or maybe of claiming what was never meant to be mine.

Alice walks silently to fix a black tie to my white shirt. "I appreciate you coming with me today, Edward. I know it's selfish of me to ask, but I don't know if I could do this without you…" She lays her head on my shoulders and I automatically pulled her into a hug with my head resting on hers.

We stand in an understanding silence for some time. Alice has been through almost as much as I have over these last few centuries. Bella was her best friend, and when she died, she took a piece of Alice with her.

"You would've done the same for me." I say rubbing her back absent mindedly. Alice and I have always been close – since that very day when she'd stolen my room so many years ago. Being gifted among the other vampires had naturally bonded us together, but as time went on, she was… is one of the very few women I've grown to love in my lifetime. She's my closest confident, my best friend … my sister – and she'll always be that.

"The others are waiting." We finally broke and silently started down the stairs.

~O~

A pile of freesia and roses lie on top of the headstone for Bella. Each family member alternates standing before it, sharing a small practiced conversation about how life has progressed since she was here, how much they missed her. Alice is second to the last, and as it is every time, her conversation is silent as she and I stand together.

"_Tell me!" Bella whined pulling on my arm and turning my head towards hers. I smile and laugh slightly at her adorable pout. My love has never been one for surprises and I think she's only gotten worse over the time we've been together._

"_Tell you what, love?" I leaned in for a peck on her lips._

"_What crazy thing you have planned for our wedding anniversary!" When I denied her and insisted it remain a surprise, she tried to imitate Alice's __**face**__ (the one that makes it impossible to say no). _

_I chuckled again and kissed her cheek, "You might have to take a few more pointers from Alice; that one still needs a little work." She protested again, I said no. _

_She finally gives up and wraps her arms around my neck, "Please?" Damn! And she does it with the doe eyed thing! How am I supposed to refuse anything with that? "Please, Edward?" Again!_

"_We're going to France." I say before my mind catches up with my mouth. Oh well…_

If only I knew then what I know now.

I'm taken from my reverie when Alice takes my hand inhaling shakily. I rub my thumb along the back of her palm soothingly. I notice the others have left us. It's just me and Alice.

"We're moving." She says quietly looking at the ground.

"It's about time." I reply calmly "Carlisle is claiming thirty-two now isn't he?" She corrects me; thirty three. It means we've stayed much too long; her hesitation strikes me as odd, moving is normal at this point.

"Rosalie is pushing for Forks. I tell her it's a bad idea but… well, you know Rose. Carlisle wants a family meeting, so I was thinking maybe we could team up and suggest another city in Alaska … we'd have Jasper…" I was tired of Alaska as was everyone else; Alice knows but she tries to avoid Bella related subjects for my sake.

"We can't wallow over Bella forever Alice," she looked up at me strangely. Probably because no one has said the name since we lost her; everyone is careful to edit instead substituting for _'her'_ or _'she'_. "Let Rose have her way. I don't feel like going to war with the stubborn harpy." She nodded slightly and squeezed my hand.

We slowly start making our way back to our home in Ontario, Canada.

"Maybe you're right… I've been able to handle it better, her death." Alice said reluctantly. "Sometimes though, I get these visions… like, she still here. I know I think about her all the time, but these are so strong – not visually, they're actually very unclear – but the presence itself is strong… Surely you've – "

"I haven't read your mind, well any of your minds, in years" Alice nodded looking away, somehow deflated, "I think I know what you're talking about – sometimes, when I… flashback I suppose… it doesn't feel like a flashback, it's something that I've experienced before – Like I'm remembering something that never happened, but I do…"

"What do you think it means?"

"Nothing, Ali. It just means we love someone so dearly, we can make ourselves believe she's still here." I reply dejectedly, there was no use reading into something that wasn't really there. It'd only break our hearts further.

"How do you think Nessie is going to feel?"

"She misses her mother, but knowing her, she'll look to the bright side of the whole thing. She'll get to see where her mother grew up, where she was born, and Seth will get to see La Push again. It's hard to believe they've been married for over a century now…"

Alice stops suddenly, "I envy your strength."

"I don't know what you mean, Ali."

"If that was Jasper who was… you know, I'd be… I'd have… I can't even imagine what I would do…if" Alice struggled to find the words.

"I didn't think I would either, but I have Renesmee. It would be selfish of me to have gone to the Volturi, or pissed off some nomad coven to get myself killed and take her father away too. If there was a part of Jasper that needed you, you'd done the same thing."

We were approaching the Canadian-American border by the time we picked up a conversation again.

"We should do something fun." Alice looked at me with a small smile, reminding me, if only for a second of my sister before the somber expression became a permanent fixture on her face.

"We should. Bella would want us to "get over it already" and at least try to be happy, right?"

Alice smiles a little, reminding me, again slightly of the Alice she used to be. "Yeah," her enthusiasm seemed to rise significantly, "We'll make a compromise. Rosalie gets Forks, but you and I start as Seniors! This time, we make the most of our high school experience – for Bella."

"Deal."

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**A/N: Yes. It's all gone. Honestly, the old Second Time Around started out as a writing exercise (a horrible one at that), and looking back at it now, I know I can do a whole lot better. I'm going to try to keep the same storyline in terms of major events, but at this point nothing is safe. Amber and Edward aren't going to meet the same way… at all. It won't be the cliché 'they instantly in love' or where she automatically trusts him. I've actually worked on some character analysis for Amber, so she should also be better. Thanks again for everyone who has stayed with me up until now; I've lost quite a few people since I got started.**

**For the new comers, hi! Thank you for taking the time to read this, or at least clicking on the title and I assume you read it when it registers on my 'hits' for the story. Reviews and suggestions are welcomed and appreciated. I've already gotten flamed for this so I'm going to go ahead and re-state it: **_**This is an **__Edward/Bella/Oc_**pairing, so it belongs in the Edward/Bella section of ff(dot)net. Okay. Now that I all of that is taken care of, I can finally end the chapter. Hope you enjoyed it.**

**FAN INTERACTION: How do you feel about the new TSTA in comparison the old one? For the new comers; What did you think? Suggestions?**


	2. AN: Notification of Revision

A/N: I've already posted the replacement chapter for what used to be chapter one of TSTA, however, the website doesn't notify readers when someone replaces content, as far as I know.

This is more of a message to let those who've followed the story thus far know that I've redone it again.

Sorry if I got your hopes up! Thanks guys.

~RenaJ159

P.S. I don't really expect to be doing regular updates nor do I have an updating schedule. Life's pretty busy right now, so TSTA is still an 'I'll write when I have the time" project. Just a warning for the future :)


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